Re-entry simulation exercise at Givens Center shows the chaos of life after prison

Kitsap County Prosecutor Tina Robinson fills out a job application during a re-entry simulation event at the Givens Community Center in Port Orchard on Friday. The event provided lessons in the difficulties faced by people attempting to reintegrate into society after a jail term.(Photo: Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun)Buy Photo

PORT ORCHARD — Prosecutor Tina Robinson, fresh out of a seven-year prison bid for selling meth, failed a drug test Friday. But when she showed up for treatment, she was turned away — she didn’t have the correct form of ID.

It wasn't her fault, though, the man who was supposed to issue her identification card made a mistake on her form.

“I’m a new employee,” the man said, waving to Robinson. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Kitsap County’s prosecutor, of course, does not have a criminal record and has never served time in prison. But on Friday, she was part of a group of more than 40 gathered at the Givens Center in Port Orchard for a re-entry simulation exercise, sponsored by the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, a member of Kitsap Community Partnership for Transitional Solutions.

Although fun, and frustrating, the exercise was meant to illustrate over the course of an afternoon — which represented several weeks — the many ways a person can trip as they try to make their way back into society after being released from incarceration.

Assuming the identity of a former inmate, the participants were tasked with finding a job, housing, attending recovery meetings and checking in with a parole officer with limited funds and transportation options.

It was an exercise, though. Missing was the looming reality that a few (or one) missteps could result in them going right back to jail.

Joyce Oswald, one of the organizers of the event and a professor at Tacoma Community College at Mission Creek women's prison in Belfair, said even when somebody does their best, there are so many hurdles, and potential complications, that one minor error — even if not really their fault — can result in major consequences.

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Packets with identities, checklists, cash and transportation tickets were used by people participating in the reentry simulation.(Photo: Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun)

“Even if a person tries as hard as they can, there are barriers keeping them from being successful,” she said.

Oswald said the simulation does give people an idea of what it is like.

At first, the participants were confused and many wandered around, trying to figure out where they needed to go. The tables against the walls represented work, transportation, the Department of Licensing (where the untrained employee’s mistake thwarted Robinson’s attempt to get into treatment), and even pawn shops and plasma centers. The participants had to follow the directions in their packets but also had to make choices on how they proceeded within 15-minute periods.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the fray was a man holding a plastic baggy of chocolates, a mischievous smile on his face, calling out in a singsong voice: “I’ve got special candy.”

The candy represented drugs, and if a participant gave in to temptation and took a piece, they had to burn one of the minutes.

“He tried to tempt me,” Robinson said of the “drug dealer.” “I just did seven years for that, I’m out of here.”

“It’s supposed to be chaotic,” Janel McFeat, a program manager for the tribe, told the participants.

Jason Gomez, a chemical dependency counselor staffing the station meant to represent employment, went through it all before. But for him, it wasn’t a simulation. He did it in real life.

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Daniel DeCoteau, of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe, plays the part of a pawn shop employee and hands Judy Dutcher, the Washington regional coordinator for Bridges To Life, some "cash." The tribe sponsored the re-entry simulation.(Photo: Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun)

“You think this is chaotic,” he said. “This is nothing.”

When the participants came to Gomez’s station, depending on whether they were taking a full- or part-time job, they had to sit for a set number of minutes, meaning they were kept from accomplishing all the other tasks they needed to accomplish in a 15-minute round.

Robinson noted that the jobs didn’t pay her enough to meet her bills, however, they kept her from completing her tasks.

Some participants, overwhelmed and frustrated, said they wanted to give up. It was just too much and they resigned themselves to going back to jail

“I’m so tired and discouraged, I’m just going to spend the next week in bed and not do anything,” said Dora Fitzpatrick, of Tacoma, sitting out the next 15-minute round.

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Mike Canonica, from the state Division of Child Support, sits in the jJail" during the reentry simulation at the Givens Community Center in Port Orchard on Friday.(Photo: Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun)

The challenges were nothing new for Kitsap County Sheriff’s Corrections Lt. Penny Sapp, who as an administrator in the jail knows all too well the barriers and challenges facing former inmates, because often enough she sees them when they come back. She said 85 percent of those released from the jail will return within a year.

However, the tribe and the jail are working to improve exiting inmates' chances to succeed as they make a home on the outside. Using a nearly $1 million U.S. Department of Justice grant given to the tribe, they are teaming up to expand services from its re-entry program to local jail inmates.

Although she participated in the simulation, Sapp said the highlight wasn’t the realization of how fraught the re-entry process is — she knew that already — but watching other people come to understand how hard it can be and why they need assistance.

“They need some help,” Sapp said of inmates. “Everybody expects them to do it on their own.”

Jason Gomez asks a participant for three transportation tickets at the "Employer" station during the re-entry simulation. Gomez, a chemical dependency counselor, went through re-entry in real life.(Photo: Meegan M. Reid / Kitsap Sun)